I had 93.7 on last night on my way home and happened to hear Poni open his show with the essentially the same thing - basically, "Batch won the Baltimore game and earned the #2 spot because of it; Gradkowski has never won a meaningful NFL game". I gave it two segments. Whenever someone called and argued that durability was a huge concern with Batch, he basically said, "Well, he got through that Baltimore game..." and re-iterated his original premise.

Turned the channel after he refused to engage the second caller who tried to debate the point with him further. Cookie-cutter radio crap from Poni, just like usual. First time I've listened to him in months. Nothing has apparently changed.

I heard that too and it was awful. You know Pittsburgh is a football town first when people are talking about the backup QB situation...in MARCH! Good lord.

That's Poni's gimmick: find one point and stick to it. It doesn't matter if it's wrong, right, or even logical.

I had 93.7 on last night on my way home and happened to hear Poni open his show with the essentially the same thing - basically, "Batch won the Baltimore game and earned the #2 spot because of it; Gradkowski has never won a meaningful NFL game". I gave it two segments. Whenever someone called and argued that durability was a huge concern with Batch, he basically said, "Well, he got through that Baltimore game..." and re-iterated his original premise.

Turned the channel after he refused to engage the second caller who tried to debate the point with him further. Cookie-cutter radio crap from Poni, just like usual. First time I've listened to him in months. Nothing has apparently changed.

I heard that too and it was awful. You know Pittsburgh is a football town first when people are talking about the backup QB situation...in MARCH! Good lord.

That's Poni's gimmick: find one point and stick to it. It doesn't matter if it's wrong, right, or even logical.

As long as its the opposite of whoever he has on the phone at the time.

Poni sucks. I had his show on for about 5 minutes yesterday and found it entertaining only because he was trying to get Dan Zangrilli fired up about his status among Clarion alumni and Zangrilli was taking the bait. Fitting that literally the only segment I enjoy of his in 3 years isn't about sports and is about teasing the update guy.

I know the Fan got some new manager for DJs/anchors. One thing he or she must be pushing is having a benchmark segment on every show -- the Power Rankings, the Sour Rankings, Dunlap's Dilemma, To Tell the Truth, 5:40 Free for All, Ask Josh Anything (ripping off Madden's worn out schtick that he started 10 years ago)...these are tiresome to me and have nothing to do with sports, does anybody actually like these things?

Say it is 10:20 and time for the news update. They come back from the update around 10:25, talk, and then go to commercial around 10:33-10:35 and then another update at 10:40. Rinse, repeat. I understand the update frequency, but it seems like the actual talk time has been reduced. Or is it just me? So being in the car for 20 minutes yields only 8-10 minutes of talk.

DudeMan2766 wrote:As long as its the opposite of whoever he has on the phone at the time.

the guy is hellbent on disagreeing with everyone.

the best part is, when someone calls and agrees with poni, poni never is enthusiastic about it, like hes actually annoyed if someone actually agrees with him. he always says sarcastic stuff like "well thanks bro for pointing out the exact things i pointed out"

I stopped listening to The Fan months ago, mostly because their mobile app buffers every minute and pretty much sucks, but also because the discussion is usually pretty boring. I also get annoyed by the updates. They have a soundbite to announce that an update is on the way, and then right afterwards have another announcemen that it's time for an update before even going into the announcement. Just have one or the other not both.

I've been listening to triblive more. Its nothing earthshattering and its sometimes bland but its a nice change.

And I know I rip on the Vinnyisms alot so Im going to do it again. I went about 5/6 weeks without listening to the Fan, turned it on last week at work and within the first 30 seconds heared Vinnie "sho on and sho fort" ...I turned it right off.

DudeMan2766 wrote:I've been listening to triblive more. Its nothing earthshattering and its sometimes bland but its a nice change.

And I know I rip on the Vinnyisms alot so Im going to do it again. I went about 5/6 weeks without listening to the Fan, turned it on last week at work and within the first 30 seconds heared Vinnie "sho on and sho fort" ...I turned it right off.

Read the Smizik blog. I don't think it's as bad as Smizik is making it. Though I do agree they don't like each other.

The verbal sparring between Vinnie Richichi and Ron Cook (‘Vinnie and Cook’) on The Fan took a decidedly ugly turn on Thursday, and not, I’m told, for the first time. Cook called Richichi a ‘homer’ and said he was trying to ‘curry favor’ by predicting Pitt wins in the NCAA tournament. Richichi got so angry he told Cook, who was in Utah covering the NCAA tournament for the Post-Gazette, that he should ``stay in Salt Lake City,’’ ignoring the fact that Cook has a family, a home and a job in Pittsburgh. These are two guys who don’t like each other.